Antitrust action against Microsoft has been ongoing since 1990.
In 1994, the Justice Department reached a settlement with Microsoft requiring the company to change its business practices.
In 1995, Justice sued to block Microsoft's acquisition of Intuit.
In October 1996, The U.S. Government and 20 states launched a trial accusing Microsoft of illegal activities including bullying competitors.
Sun Microsystems sued Microsoft for violating their agreement related to the Java programming language and Caldera Linux sued Microsoft for its efforts to quash Dr. DOS, a competitor with Microsoft DOS.
In April 2000, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft violated the Sherman antitrust act.
He wrote that the company maintained its monopoly power by anti-competitive means, attempted to monopolize the web browser market and unlawfully tied its web browser to the operating system.
The Justice Department and 17 state attorneys general proposed breaking Microsoft up into two companies, one holding the operating system and the other everything else.
Judge Jackson agreed with the proposal.
The head of the Justice Department's anti-trust division said the Department is committed to finding a remedy that will protect consumers by putting an end to Microsoft's abuse of monopoly powers and rectify its unlawful attempt to monopolize the web browser market.
Bill Gates announced that his company will appeal the verdict which was characterized as an anti-capitalist attack that would be against the public interest and dangerous for the welfare of the economy.
